The state of Britains Politics and why its also our fault...

[SeriousSam]

I am sure that there are others here who have reached this conclusion, but with the battle lines for the next election already being drawn I thought I’d raise this particular subject.

We as Briton’s love a good grumble about the state of British politics, which I for one find rather ironic, considering that we have to take some responsibility for the way that it is currently. Much in the same way that journalism has for the most part sunk into a bottomless pit of insubstantiality and deceit because we are the ones buying the papers / magazines full of all the trash they print. Yes I know that not everyone (if anyone here) buys tabloids. I am just using the “we” to cover us as a general population. Politicians (or at least their advisors) are smart enough to recognise what gets them votes and adjust their behaviour and policies accordingly. So we are responsible for that change as the whole point is for them to win votes to get elected, otherwise how else do they achieve their aims, principled or otherwise.

Now you could get into a chicken and egg argument about who started the rot first, us or the politicians, but that is somewhat pointless as it will not lead to a solution for the issue. In fact it is unlikely that you could pinpoint how it started as in some respects the whole system was flawed from the very start. However, there are definitely a few things I believe that have helped to accelerate the political decline.

(1) Humans don’t make decisions just based on rational thought processes, our emotions and experiences exert a significant influence as well

(2) In real terms the level of education of the population and politicians has significantly decreased when measured against the increase in human knowledge, especially in terms of understanding Science

(3) Individuals and groups are more than willing to exploit the consequences of point (1) to further their own ends

(4) Decision making power is not in the hands of those that understand the actual subject to which it pertains, or its wider context

(5) Short term thinking prevails within Government because of the need to show results within election timeframes

(6) “Joined up thinking” is an alien concept within government due to the fiefdom mentality within the halls of Whitehall

It also strikes me that the larger the population and more centralised the locus of power, the greater the effect that some of these factors exert on political decline. In the case of a large population within a country this can essentially be broken down into lots of small communities* with differing value systems. Now it is human nature that each community will think that its set of values are the best for the common good and so they all compete to ensure their views come out on top. Of course this is further complicated by there being conflict over values even within small communities.

*These can be geographical or based on other commonalities such as political or religious beliefs

When it comes to centralisation then the more power is located in one place then the more distanced it becomes from those in whose best interests it is supposed to govern. It also leads to a “consensus” one size fits all set of laws and policies which clearly won’t work given the huge differences between areas of the country. Why for example should someone that actually needs a 4x4 pay extra tax because of a bunch of idiots driving them around in cities? It won’t stop the latter as if they can afford the thing in the first place they’re not going to be that bothered by a bit more tax. Oh and it’s not as though that extra tax will be going towards any environmental initiatives anyway.

Anyway all of this makes me wonder whether any large scale human civilisation is inherently doomed, much in the same way as empires rise and fall. Consensus government just doesn’t work as it either results in no decision, an “average” decision or one based on who creates the biggest support for their point of view by emotive rhetoric. Additionally there is also the issue that the larger a civilisation becomes the more significant the impact of incorrect decisions, which then creates further problems that have to be solved. Thus creating a vicious downward spiral into the decay and collapse of the political system and society.

So what is the answer, how do we improve politics within this country? Personally I don’t think that we can as our whole way of life is based on one huge fundamental lie (I’ll let you figure out what that is).

[scaryjim]

(5) Short term thinking prevails within Government because of the need to show results within election timeframes

I think this is, perhaps, the biggest problem, but not just in the way it permeates Government thinking, but also the population in general expects and demands short term gains which are frequently incompatible with long term stability and growth.

When it comes to centralisation then the more power is located in one place then the more distanced it becomes from those in whose best interests it is supposed to govern.

I said perhaps above because this point runs the one above pretty close for biggest problem! The House of Commons seats a bit over 600 MPs for a country with a population rapidly approaching 60 million. I have no idea how that's meant to be representative...

Anyway all of this makes me wonder whether any large scale human civilisation is inherently doomed, much in the same way as empires rise and fall. Consensus government just doesn’t work as it either results in no decision, an “average” decision or one based on who creates the biggest support for their point of view by emotive rhetoric.

Consensus decision works at a local level, and I'm a big supporter (if you hadn't guessed form my comment above) of decentralised government. I think all large governances *are* doomed to failure, if they try to maintain centralised power throughout significant growth. As your population increases you just can't get enough people together in one place to ensure you have sufficient representation of all viewpoints. At the minute each MP theoretically represents the views of around 80,000 people. And to me that's just ludicrous...

[Kata]

The problem is, its hard enough reaching a decision with a group of 6 people, let alone 600. And those 600 we have are not exactly of high calibre; have you seen the way they act like squabbling little children in Parliament? It's an embarrassment to any educated, thinking person.

I think our real political problem is that our politicians are terrible, and have only ever studied/practiced 'politics'. This is about getting elected - it is NOT about running a large organisation. The best person to govern a country would be, in my opinion, the ex-CEO of a major company such as an oil major. They have proven that they can successfully run an organisation the size of a country under private, commercial conditions; far more challenging than running a country IMO. I suspect that the monetary efficiency of such a government would be countless times better than the current moronic organisation, and as such, we'd all be a hell of a lot better off.

The system whereby failed ministers, who have never had a real job in their lives, are shunted from Education to Transport to Health (where is the commonality in that!?), making a mess each time as they flail around cluelessly because the guys cleaning their office are probably more qualified to run something than they are, is a nonsense - they couldn't run a McDonalds, let alone a country, and they have never proven themselves in any serious role. What qualifications does our illustrious PM have to run a country, for example; 2 years as a TV journalist (in politics, even) does not give you the skills to run a country, and neither does a History degree.

[Flash477]

One of the major problems with politics nowadays is that you have to try and guess what a party will actually do when they are in power, as we all know full well that all the promises they come up with at election time are just to try and win votes, and will never come to pass.

Mind you we also know from the expense scandals that MPs are greedy, and most of what they do is to line their own pockets, getting too friendly with large corporations and banks. This is something that should be stopped for a start, as to be impartial you can't have a vested interest in any company.

However, to a degree, we the voters are as much to blame, as we tend to vote for the party that promises us the best for our pockets. If a party acknowledges the HUGE amount of debt this country is under then we shun them, as we know that we will have to pay more tax to try and clear this country's debts.

Really the whole system is corrupt from the top to the bottom (I know there are good people amount this bunch, but there is also a lot of bad apples):

• At the top you have the major MPs and Leaders, who get paid rediculous amounts, have their hands in every honey pot they can, and will retire on a pension that most of us would be lucky to ever earn in a high paying job!
• Then you have the MPs at the lower levels, whom most of which are also trying to line their own pockets and try and claim for everything possible. Also there are some who basically don't even turn up for parlament, or show up (so that they get paid) and bugger off home. They also employ members of their familiy for rediculous sums of money.
• Now you get down to the civil servant managers, and managers of hospitals and councils, who usually earn a huge wage, and leak money like it is water.
• Now you get down to the general office workers, for whom a large majority are not using their time effeciently, as if they did, they would only need half of them
• Finally you get down to people like the council road workers, who will try and stretch out a job as long as humanly possible so that they can have as many breaks and do as little work as possible.

Basically the goverment, both local and central, waste money thinking of the public as a bottomless purse. If they ran a business the same way, it would have been bankrupt long ago! The government should be run more like a business, with proper budgets, time constrants, and sackings for those people who can't do the job!

Oh, and lastly, Gordon Brown should stop giving out all the country's money!

/rant

PS. Some, or all of the above, may be utter rubbish, but it is the way I see it